Enemy of the State1998

2:28 AM Gene Hackman says something in this to the effect of “the more technology advances, the more ways the government can watch you.” And he talks about how 20 years before this movie took place, there was a computer system that would listen to the phone lines and whenever one of 100 or so keywords got said, it would file it and flag it for investigation. And now because everything is wireless, they don’t need phone lines and can just pluck the information right out of the air.  And this movie is from 1998.  There is no such thing as privacy.  It’s enough to make someone paranoid.  This feels like a higher-octane spiritual sequel to The Conversation, and I think it would feel that way even without the inclusion of Gene Hackman, though I’m guessing I’m only making that connection because of his role in this film. For the first half of the movie or so, it is a Will Smith film. But as soon as Hackman shows up, he absolutely steals the show. He is always almost surprisingly charming in every role I have seen him in. I like the Man Who Knew Too Much-style plot. I always enjoy these fish out of water stories, I guess because they are more easily accessible and relatable than watching an overpowered and highly trained individual in a similar scenario. It makes me feel like if I were in a similar situation, I could also survive.  Also, I wanted to shout out how this has one of the craziest assortments of actors in the surveillance team. I just kept going “woah, it’s that guy.” “Woah, it’s that guy!”  Anyways, the fact that we live in an ultra-fascist surveillance state is not going to keep me up at night.  Sweet dreams.